Official 100th Episode!

I don't like to journal, but I know when I do, I feel happier. I have more fulfillment, I have more clarity. I trust that inner knowing more. And so that is exactly what this is. And all of those feelings, all of that is research backed and knowing. Even though I felt those things, I'd still like, I don't really need to do that. Pause to reflect, journal. When I got the data and the results, like, no, you really need to do that. It feels good. And there are these other benefits. Okay, so I shared the research just in case you need that little extra something. Something to check in with yourself and pause and reflect. Hey there. I am excited to be hanging out with you today. It is going to be you and I connecting here in this episode of the Right on Time podcast because we have hit a milestone. We have hit the 100 episode milestone of this podcast and I want to share just a little bit of how that has been going and also want to share an update on what is happening here in life right now because I think there are some things that may be interesting and relevant for you also. And for those of you who are watching, I know listeners, you would not have seen this, but if you are watching this video, you'll see I just looked at my phone own. There are some urgent things happening in my life right now. So I'm also kind of keeping an eye on those things as we move through this episode. But I know, you know, life doesn't stop. Life keeps going. We've got dreams, we've got goals, we've got plans to execute on and then life lifes and we're like, okay, we're gonna work through that and we're gonna weave that in. And that is one of the things that I think about when I think 100 episodes later. We have recorded a lot of episodes in the last, let's say, six months. And I feel like we have just gotten into a groove on communicating and connecting and gotten into a groove in this podcast. Because my friend, let me tell you, you may or may not know, this podcast actually started in 2017. So if you do the math on if this were a weekly podcast, which it is now, but it wasn't always, that would be a lot more podcast episodes going out and videos that we now drop going out than what we have now, 100 episodes, which I am so stinking excited about, it feels big, it feels exciting, and I do kind of feel like I'm just hitting my groove now. Why is that? That I feel like I'm just hitting my Groove or When we first started this podcast, I was in a place in life where I could not do a lot of interviews. My schedule was funny, we had a lot going on, like things were happening I couldn't quite see and we couldn't quite structure an interview schedule into what I had going on in life at the time. However, more recently I felt the desire and the urge and it made sense, sense for us to start having more conversation with people. And that has been a game changer. Even more than talking with people on these podcast episodes, I am so loving listening to the stories and the journeys and the guidance and the advice that our incredible guests have had as we have ramped up and we've been doing more guest episodes. So I hope you feel the same and are enjoying these beautiful conversations that we have had. And I'm also really excited to be connecting here with you one on one today. So as we go forward, I definitely want to have more beautiful conversations. So if there are conversations that you think, oh, this would be a good one to have, or oh, you definitely got to talk to this person because this message is so very right on time. In essence, I would be so open to your recommendations and your guidance for for future guests because I would like to continue to keep having beautiful conversations with incredible people. Now, I mentioned that life has been lifing lately and in our 100th episode here, I also am rolling into summer break soon, so I want to share a little bit of behind the scenes of what's been happening here and what to expect from me personally in the upcoming months. So I've been volunteering and doing some volunteer work which has been equal parts challenging and rewarding. So I've been enjoying that. But it has been challenging in the sense that I am really thinking about things differently than I get to do every day in my businesses. So in that respect, it's also been quite rewarding and enjoyable. There have been some business challenges that had come up. You may not know, but I purchased a business in the last six months and we've had to do some rebranding. I've been doing some work to get ramped up and up to speed there. And then just in life, as the external market changes, it impacts what we have going on in our businesses. So we've been navigating business challenges, opportunities, questions, shifts, evolutions, that it's really just business. It is core business, doing the business, doing the work in there, adapting, adjusting, and doing what we talk about inside the modern CEO in a very big way, like looking at financials and how marketing impacts where we are financials and how external factors from a SWOT analysis impact what's happening in the business. And if you're hearing these things thinking, wait, what, what are we even talking about? When you know how to run your business from the role of modern CEO, when things external happen, like, okay, these things are happening, but I have a framework to navigate them. So when things feel challenging, when they feel uneasy, and it's a beautiful thing to have a framework to move through those challenges with. And that's what we do and talk about in the modern CEO. So while I feel like I am well equipped because I have been doing business for a while and I have built frameworks to navigate business challenges and opportunities and growth, I feel like we've got a strong framework to move through it. So that helps reduce the stress that I may feel around those business challenges. And third, one of the other things that's been happening over here is that I do feel like I'm working on some really fulfilling projects right now. For example, this week, as you are listening to this episode, as this episode drops, this week we hosted something called the Plan A Thon Edit. If you missed it, well, you might still be able to catch the replays over in our group over@amber McHugh.com forward slash group. So check that out. Those replays will be up for just about 24 hours from the time that this episode dropped. But as I'm working on the Plan A Thon Edit, which is a spin off of our annual planning event for entrepreneurs called the Plan A Thon. Some of you have participated in that before. The Plan A Thon is a planning event for entrepreneurs where we come together every year to look at our goals, look at our strategies, look at things that are happening and new marketing techniques that we could implement in our businesses as we get set up for the year ahead. And this year we're doing a Plan A Thon Edit, which is a mini Plan A Thon where we are looking at those plans that we built and making adjustments as needed and checking in and kind of holding ourselves accountable. Because as you are growing a business, as an individual who has big dreams and big goals and purpose and things that you want to accomplish in this lifetime, in this season, in this year, it is so important in periodically and look at how am I doing? Am I on track? Am I off track? What adjustments do I need to make? And fun fact, when people pause to reflect and do assessments like this, how am I doing? Am I on track? My off Track. When you do this reflection, it increases happiness and you get better results. There's research to support this, which I always inherently knew. Like, I don't like to journal, but I know when I do, I feel happier. I have more fulfillment, I have more clarity. I trust that inner knowing more. And so that is exactly what this is. And all of those feelings, all of that is research backed and knowing. Even though I felt those things, I'd still like, I don't really need to do that. Pause to reflect, journal. When I got the data and the results, I'm like, no, you really need to do that. It feels good. And there are these other benefits. Okay, so I shared the research just in case you need that little extra something. Something to check in with yourself and pause and reflect. So I share sort of those busy things that are happening right now in my volunteer efforts, in my professional efforts, because there's a lot going on here for me, and I suspect there may be a lot going on for you too. I didn't even share some of the life stuff that came up this week. Let me do that real quick. So just so you know. Well, we can commiserate. I know you've got it going on too. My big thing this week was that yesterday, it was Monday. I'm recording here on a Tuesday. And I. I had intended to record this yesterday, and I intended to have multiple other podcast interviews yesterday with guests that will be coming up in the future. And one of those guests had to cancel. Totally. Okay. Right on time. And you know, sometimes when people cancel in the past, like, man, come on. But nope, I know it's right on time. Like, I don't know why. There's something unfolding. Maybe it's something for me, maybe it's something for the other person. But no problem, we're good here on my end. Like, things are going to unfold exactly how they're supposed to, right? Fricking on time. And if I had been on that interview with that incredible guest and friend of mine, I would not have picked up my phone. And in this particular moment, I needed to pick up my phone because the bus dispatcher was calling me saying, I can't find your kids and we're leaving. I said, ah, no worries. I am so sorry. Thank you for letting me know. They can catch the next bus. There are two buses that rotate through one for after school and then one for people who have after school activities. And he said, no, no, no, there are no more after school activities. This is the only bus that the second bus is Canceled him. Okay, need to find those kids, but if not, that's okay. I'll figure out how I can get up there later to pick them up. I will go up to the school, find them, see what's going on, investigate, you know, dig in more because I didn't want to hold up the other kids on the bus. And so the dispatcher said, okay, I'm going to look for them one more time and then I will get back to you. In the meantime, I'm seeing an email from the nurse's office. My kids are in the nurse's office because Harper has injured her leg. I said, oh, my gosh, thank you for letting me know. Nurse, the dispatcher is looking for them. Could you please make sure they get on the bus? The bus is still there. The dispatcher and the nurse connected and the dispatcher said, the nurse would like to speak with you. And she said, Harper cannot walk to the bus. Like, oh my. Okay. It's a little bit more serious than what I understood. Harper can't walk to the bus. We've got to splint her leg and then we can put her in a wheelchair. You may need to get X rays. Had I been on that podcast episode, I wouldn't have been able to facilitate this. I wouldn't have been aware. So I canceled my next interview so I could be here to support Harper when she got home. The bus driver had to carry her in. It's quite a distance from where our bus drops off to our house. Quite a distance if you have an injured leg. Easy walk usually, but quite a distance if you have an injured leg like this. And yeah, Harper was in full on splint. Her leg had foam splint from basically the top of her leg to her ankle and wrapped up. Now we don't think it's broke. She isn't able to put a lot of weight on it yet. She can dip a toe down and that's about it. But there's no bruising. And we've consulted with the medical professionals here. We're keeping an eye on it right now. But life is absolutely lifey here too, and things happen right on time. So if you've got stuff coming up and you're like, I don't get it, I don't understand, why is this happening? You know, I used to ask that question and sometimes why did this happening? Why does this continue to happen? Those are good things to ask if systemically something is at play and it needs to change. But in the moment, when these one off things come up like, okay, I don't know why, I don't understand why, but I'm going to let this play out and I've given you a lot of background. But I promise you I'm going to get to some lessons that I've got and some good insights for you as well. Because as I've been going through this, I'm reminded right fricking on time. And I'm also reminded and seen as I sit down to work on those fulfilling projects in the middle of all of the things that oh, in fact, just this morning as I was working on the Plan A thon edit, preparing, fine tuning, reviewing my shares and the material I have to share with you in the workshops that we're hosting this week, I was reminded that this is what I am supposed to do. This is material content workshop that I am supposed to prepare and deliver for someone this week. I am in alignment when I'm doing that. And as we sit here in our 100th episode and I'm reflecting on this and we're connecting here, I was reminded of something from a prior episode that we had this year where Dr. Tiffany Johnson shared the question Just checking my phone here for a second in case that's something urgent coming in related to the kids. No, it is not. Thank you for letting me pause in that intermission there. Tiffany Johnson shared the question that I want to bring back for you today in case life is lifeing for you and you are also going through shifts and a journey and an evolution as we all are in life and you're reflecting where you are and what you need and what you're doing right now. And Tiffany asked the question, what dream did God put in you that you are required to bring to life? I'm gonna say it again because it was so dang good. What dream did God put in you that you are required to bring to life? And maybe that sparks something for you because you're in the middle of something and you know it's not where you're supposed to be, but you don't know what the answer is yet. Or maybe you felt something because you know so clearly what dream you are supposed to be bringing to life and you're not there in that space yet. Or maybe you don't have an answer. I don't know what. What in the world? How am I supposed to answer that? And then I would ask you a second question. Is there so much going on for you in life right now that you are distracted so you're not able to tap in and see what is my purpose? Am I on the right path or not? Am I doing the right things or not? Which brings to mind a quote from T.S. eliot. We're distracted from distraction by distraction. We're distracted from distraction by distraction. And it's funny, lately so many quotes or reflections have been coming up about, you know, AI and about social media and about the pace that our lives move at that we're like not current quotes. They are 10 years old, 5 years old, 10 years old, 20 years old. And even then, people were feeling distracted from distraction by distraction. We got a lot going on. How do you stay in a space that is meaningful, that is fulfilling, that is purposeful? Not all the time, you know, we're gonna do things, we got stuff going on, of course. But how do generally we stay in alignment with where we want and need to be going? How do we stay in that place of fulfillment and joy and abundance and satisfaction? Or are we so distracted that we don't even know? We can't even answer the question. And so if you can't answer that question, what dream did God put in you that you are required to bring to life? Or if you've got so much going on that you can't get a pulse on that dream to move it forward, I want to invite you in this season as we are hitting mid year before we roll into the second half of the year to take some time, whether you join us over@amber McHugh.com forward/group to catch the plan a thon edit that we hosted where we walked through some of this together or you are in a space where you just pause and do some journaling. What dream is in me that I am required to bring to life? How do I feel right now versus how do I want to be feeling? Take some time to check in on where you want to be going and the intentions you set for yourself at the beginning of this year compared to what is happening right now and what adjustments you want to make as we roll into this next season, the second half of our year, take that time to pause and reflect and reset because it is in your purpose to have satisfaction and joy and happiness. And when people pause to reflect, happiness levels tick up. Plus if you've got a goal, a dream that you are going after, you are going to get better results if you pause and reflect like we are doing right now, a little bit together and invite you to take it deeper. So as I'm going through this reflection and this journey right now because it's mid year, so this is what I do mid year anyway. And one of the recommendations for a book that came up as I was moving through my reflections was a book called the Second Mountain. And I am just like, I may be a quarter, quarter to a halfway into the book right now and I really enjoyed the beginning of this and I went back to pull some notes for you and I thought man, even just the overview of what this book is about is really compelling and I want to share a little bit of that with you today. Again, the name of the book is the Second Mountain. The book is by the author David Brooks. And this book is about your next journey. What is next? This next season? The overview of the Second Mountain says everybody tells you to live life for a cause larger than yourself, but how exactly do you do it? Best selling author of the Road to Character explores what it takes to lead a meaningful life in a self centered world in this book that was brought to my attention and I'm currently reading called the Second Mountain. So every so often you meet people who radiate joy, who seem to know why they were put on this earth, who glow with a kind of inner light. Do you know those people? Can you think of those people? Maybe you are that person. Life for these people has often been followed by what we might think of as a two mountain shape. They get out of school, they start a career, they begin climbing the mountain they thought they were meant to to climb. Their goals on this first mountain are the ones our culture endorses to be a success, to make your mark, to experience personal happiness. But when they get to the top of that mountain, something happens. They look around and they find the view unsatisfying. They realize this wasn't my mountain after all. There's another bigger mountain out there that is actually my mountain. And so they embark on a new journey. On the second mountain. Life moves from self centered to other centered. They want the things that are truly worth wanting, not the things other people tell them to want. They embrace a life of interdependence, not independence. They surrender to a life of commitment. And so this is a bit of an overview of the book the Second Mountain where David Brooks, the author, explores four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose. Then he goes into spouse and family, vocation, philosophy or faith and community. And he talks about how our personal fulfillment depends on how well we choose and execute these commitments. So with this I want to invite you to consider what commitments are you making for this second half of the year? What are you committing to? Maybe you are in the middle of the first mountain and you haven't reached the top of it yet, but you're realizing, hold up, this is the path that people see. Said I needed to go down, right? I very much did this. I graduated college, I worked in corporate. I really enjoyed it, really enjoyed it and the people I was working with. But I felt a nudge and a calling to pursue something different which ultimately led me down an entrepreneurial path. And now as I am walking this journey, I'm realizing there's a layer here that I still haven't quite dug into. And the second mountain has been really interesting as I think about that and reflect on that. So with that, my friend, I'm gonna leave you within this episode with the invitation to explore. What dream did God put in you that you're required to bring to life? Explore and reflect and journal on the commitments. Go look at where you wanted to go this year versus where you are now and what shifts you want to make as we roll into the second half of this year. This summer we have prepped incredible podcasts for you for this summer. I am not going to be recording new episodes this summer in July because I'm going to be back in the States visiting friends and family and doing some deep work and deep reflection and maybe a little journal, more intensive journaling and writing this summer. So you'll see me absolutely popping up on social media and I am essentially going to take a little break. I still have client calls, I still have connections like this, but I'm going to pause and I'm going to go deep into reflection this summer. So I am so looking forward to hearing what your plans are for the summer. I cannot wait to connect with you and hear from you. I'll be sharing on instagram @amber McHugh and in our plan a thon group over at Amber McHugh.com forward slash group and I would love to hear from you if there was a nugget in this episode that resonated. I'd love to hear where you are on your journey and any aha's that come up as you reflect with that. Thank you for being here for episode 100. Whether you were listening from the very beginning when we called this podcast the Modern CEO podcast, whether you joined us after we flipped to calling this and setting intentions around the Right on Time podcast, I am ever so grateful to be on this journey with you and I hope that this helps you in just a small way step into your Right on Time moments and what is next for you all the love. Have an amazing summer. It's gonna be good. And I can't wait to see you on Social. Tag me in as you bring your plans to life all the.